Cyclists political party clicks into gear to contest state election

A NEW political party aimed at cyclists is on track for registration and plans to contest seats at the coming Victorian election, as well as the federal election in 2016.

Ellen Whinnett National political editor

HeraldSunAugust 26, 20142:39pm

A NEW political party aimed at cyclists is on track for registration and plans to contest seats at the coming Victorian election, as well as the federal election in 2016.

The Australian Cyclists Party will this week present the names of 500 members to the Victorian Electoral Commission for verification.

The party expects to be registered by November 4, in time to contest the Victorian state election.

The Australian Electoral Commission has already received notification of its membership nationally, and is working towards party registration.

The group, run by former Bicycle NSW head Omar Khalifa, has received advice from so-called “preference whisperer’’ Glenn Druery, whose preference dealings with the micro-parties saw three of their candidates elected to the Australian Senate, where they hold a share of the balance of power.

One of those, the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party’s Senator Ricky Muir, now employs Mr Druery as an adviser.

Mr Khalifa said Mr Druery, a keen cyclist, had simply provided some early advice to the party.

He said the decision had been made to form a political party because the cycling community did not believe its voice was being heard.

“We had a pretty good idea of what wouldn’t be done unless we had some political clout,’’ he said.

The party says it wants to provide a voice for the 50 cyclists killed last year in road accidents, and the further 1300 who were injured in collisions with vehicles.

Building better cycling infrastructure is one of their priorities.

The party plans to stand candidates in Victorian Upper House seats as well as some, as-yet undetermined marginal lower house seats.